HEARTS AND FLOWERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 13

HEARTS AND FLOWERS

- TO THE EDITOR OT THB PRESS. Sir, —This rustic who claims to be a Catholic Communist has been waiting to see if one of your medical contributors would speak to us about the robot

heart invented by Colonel Lindbergh and Dr. Carrel, the famous Catholic biologist. The Bible has a story about a man who could not speak to us, so he got another fellow (with long ears) to speak for him. That story is a justification, with your bind permission, for sending a few lines about hearts and a few flowers from the braingarden of Dr. Carrel. It is said the Lindbergh-Carrel artificial heart ,is mechanically perfect, works on its own, so to speak, and always helps the heart that fails. According to Carrel, heart failure is the ultimate result of all cases of heart trouble, and heart failure, in short, is failure of the heart muscle to do its work. The writer of these lines has often burnt the midnight oil revelling in the marvels of modern medical science and the wonderful story of biology. In his youth he had dreams of being a great doctor, giving his life to heal the disinherited poor. But the gods who make one man a duke and another man a docker did not altogether agree with this big idea. It was ordained that he would distinguish himself in another field of labour. Therefore he was born the seventh son of a Tipperary spud digger, and distinguished himself at the age of five years as a super-expert at picking up small potatoes. But his heart was young, and he roamed in manv lands with a sailor lad who loved the sea and the story of biology. One day our ship landed at the big city of New York, and strange to say, an "old salt" met us in the street, and said. "Come with me to meet Dr. Carrel. He speaks to-night at our class on 'The Wonders of Life.' ' We felt like the fellow who was told he had the winning ticket in Tatt's. To meet Carrel was more to us than to meet the Queen of France or the Pope of Rome. However, we met our dream biologist, and he did not let us down. He was simple, modest, and mystical; the radiance of his personality seemed to sanctify us for many days. The light in his eyes reminded us of our own Cardinal Manning. Carrel is a true Catholic in the true sense of the word. Look at the cover of his book. "Man the Unknown." We see universal fellowship and greetings from his brother biologists. Sir Arthur Keith. Julian Huxley, and others, all anti-reli c ,ious rebels—not anti to the religion of good Communists like St. Francis of Assisi and Sir Thomas More, but anti to the religion that lives by the sword, bombs the people of the Basque country, and ranes Abvssinia. Carrel is a good Catholic, but not a good Communist. This scribe has seen him humbly kneel by the side of Ihe common docker and take the blessing. In his book "Man the Unknown," he does not like Communism, but he thinks a revolution might be necessary. He sees the impossibility of the present order or want of order. He sees that man is a stranger in the world he has created, and if Galileo and Newton had anplicd their intellectual powers to the study of man. our world would be different to-day. Industrial science, says Carrel, follows no plan. It develops at random. Man is industrial cannon fodder.—Yours, etc.. CATHOLIC TRUTH. February 23, 1938.